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Lawrence High’s softball players couldn’t fault their bats Wednesday after a season-ending loss to Olathe Northwest in a Class 6A regional semifinal. The Lions pounded Ravens ace Chandler Elsner for 11 hits, but LHS defensive mistakes — a common theme in losses this season — again cost Lawrence in a 10-6 defeat at Free State High.

LHS junior Andrea Mills pounded a two-run triple to the right-field warning track in the top of the third to give her team a 3-1 lead. Then ONW regrouped with a four-run third the next half-inning, when Lawrence (8-13) committed one of its three errors and allowed a runner to score on a passed ball.

The Lions committed another error in the fourth, when ONW (15-7) added three more runs to take an 8-3 lead.

Sophomore LHS second baseman Kenzie Garvin (4-for-4, three runs scored) led off the bottom of the fifth with a double and scored on a smoking, one-out single up the middle off Morgan Byrn’s bat. With two outs, Mills doubled to the left-field gap, and the Lions were down 8-5.

But the Ravens scored twice more in the sixth, on a passed ball and a wild pitch.

LHS out-hit the Ravens, 11-7, and scored five earned runs against Elsner, who entered with a 1.78 ERA.

“We knew we had to scratch and claw for every run we could get,” Wood said. “And offensively we did some really good things and gave ourselves a chance to win. Defensively, we gave them runs.”

Junior Kristen Gile drove in Garvin on a groundout in the seventh before Lawrence’s season ended. Garvin hopes the Lions, who had no seniors on their roster this year, can move past their mistakes.

“They always say losing makes you stronger and a better team,” Garvin said. “I think that’s actually going to be the case for this coming year.”

Mills, who went 2-for-4, agreed Lawrence’s defense must improve, but she sees success coming to the young group next season, because they learned a lot.

“We’re a family now,” Mills said. “I’ll always love these girls, each individually for a certain reason and as a whole.”